Cut-out



(No Model.)

0. S. VAN NUIS. GUT-OUT.

Patented Mar. 31,1891.

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CHARLES S. VAN NUIS, OF NElV BRUNSIVICK, NEW JERSEY.

CUT-OUT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 449,301, dated March 31, 1891.

Application filed August 18, 1890. Serial No. 362,349. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, CHARLES S. VAN NUls, a citizen of the United States, residing at New Brunswick, in the county of Middlesex and State of New Jersey, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in a Combined Cut-Out and Switch, of which the following is a specification.

My object is to provide a cheap and efiicient switch and cut-out especially adapted for heavy currents and to so construct the same as to economize in the number of parts employed and in space required on the switchboard.

A further object is to so arrange the parts of the apparatus that a single screen may be used to prevent the formation of an are between the contacts when the circuit is broken and to prevent the formation of an are between the cut-out terminals when the fusible cut-out burns.

In my improved switch the circuit is preferably made and broken at two points simultaneously and is broken by a quick snap movement instead of by the hand of the operator, as described in my patent, No. 42%,739.

My invention consists in the several devices and combinationshereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings, which illustrate the invention, Figure l is a side view of my switch; Fig. 2, a plan thereof, and 3 an en d elevation.

The operating parts of the switch are placed upon a small insulatingbase 1, usually of slate or of some vitreous material. The connectors to which the wires of the circuit are joined are shown at 2. To each of these connectors are electrically united one or more springs or plates 8, so placed that they may be connected or disconnected by movement of the switch-arm a. Said arm carries two metal plates or brushes 5, securely bolted or otherwise secured thereto and adapted to make contact with the plates 3 3. The plates 5 are of such shape and length that they make or break contact with the corresponding plates 3 at the same instant, whereby the circuit is broken at two points, as fully described in my patent above referred to. The arm 4-, if of conducting material, is made electrically discontinuous by an interposed insulatingpiece 6, which may be of rubber or vulcanized fibers. In this case the bolts 7, which connect the two sections of the arm, must be insulated from at least one section, and this may be done by the use of the insulatingtubes and washers around the bolts, as clearly indicated at S. IVithin the arch of the arm 4: I place a strip 9, of vulcanized fiber or other insulating material. This may be connected to the arm by screws 10 or in any other convenient manner. Below this insulating-strip, and preferably a short distance from it is a fusible conductor 11, the ends of which are connected, respectively, to the two plates or brushes 5 by means of suitable connecting devices,such as headed bo1ts12. These heads should be made of such form that they can readily be turned by hand in order to facilitate the replacing of destroyed cut-outs. Between the circuit-terminals 3 and between the points at which the fusible conductor is connected to the switch-contacts 5 5 is placed a single insulating-shield 13 for the purpose of preventing the formation of an are between said terminals 3 when the circuit is opened by movement of the switch, or between the connectors of the cut-out when said cut-out is burned.

It is a handle for throwing the switch, and is preferably connected to the switch-arm by means of a spring in such way as to form a snap-switch, as described in my patent above referred to.

By the construction which I have described the cut-out occupies no additional space on the switch-board, but at the same time it is so supported that it is in a position convenient of access, and is mechanically protected by the switch-arm, and is in such position that a single shield may be used, as already described.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is- 1. The combination of terminals adapted to be connected to a circuit, a nonconducting switch-arm having contacts co-operating with the circuit-terminals, a fusible conductor connecting the contacts, and a single screen between the terminals and extending between the ends of the fusible conductor, substant-ially as described.

2. The combination, in a switch, of circuittion carrying contacts co-operating with the circuit-terminals, said arm consisting of two parts secured together, but having an interposed insulating-piece, and a fusible. con-. ductor carried within the bend and connecting the contacts, substantially as described.

4. The combination, in a switch, of'circuitterminals, aswitch-armfor connecting or disconnecting said terminals, an insulating-plate carried by the arm, and a fusible conductor carried by the switch-arm and separated therefrom by said insulating-plate, substantially as described.

This specification signed and witnessed tl1-is24th day of July, 1890.

CHARLES S. VAN NUIS.

Witnesses; O O. M. OATLIN,

E. OONRON. 

